"You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible." – Anton Chekhov
"I say we give him a chance."
Four pairs of eyes turned to stare at the speaker. "Katara," Sokka said finally, "He's been the bad guy, the man behind the shadows, the one trying to kill us for the past year, and you want us to give him a chance? Did the Dai Lee get hold of you in Ba Sing Se and brainwash you?" His eyes widened in horror. "They did, didn't they! Katara, don't go into Lake Laogai! Remember Mom and Dad—and that stupid straw-eating guy! Aang, we have to do something!"
"Calm down, Snoozles," Toph said, effectively shutting Sokka up with a rock to the mouth, "She's not brainwashed. I could feel that there was something, off, about the other ones, especially after I got a chance to study Jet a little bit. There's no way I wouldn't have noticed it by now she were in the control of the Dai Lee." She leveled a glare at Katara, "But that doesn't mean she's not crazy. Why the heck would you trust Sparky? Didn't he betray you and Aang at Ba Sing Se?"
Katara nodded. "But—"
"Did that, or did that not result in Aang's death and our exile?"
"He wasn't dead," Katara protested, "Not all the way."
"He was dead enough that you needed Spirit water to bring him back. That's pretty dead for me." Toph spat and tightened the rocky prison around Zuko. "Point is, you're willing to trust this guy with Aang's life?" The younger girl trembled, "Well, I'm not."
"We'll take turns watching him," Katara said, putting a soothing hand on the girl's shoulder, "Listen. I know you're worried about Aang. I almost lost him too. But he needs a firebending teacher, or he won't be able to defeat the Firelord when the time comes!" Turning to face the others, she jerked her head at Zuko. "Face it, guys, we need him."
"She's right," Aang said, giving Zuko a wide berth as he walked over to stand next to Katara. "I need to master this."
"With all of us watching him, it should be pretty safe," Sokka admitted.
Toph's eyes narrowed, and she fumed. Three pairs of eyes stared at her beseechingly, the other pair was too busy praying to Agni that the rock walls around his chest wouldn't squeeze any tighter. "Fine," the blind girl muttered finally. "But on one condition—"
She twisted her wrists, and the rock tomb around Zuko twisted into a solid rope around his waist. He stumbled forward, straight into Katara, whom the other end of the "rope" had wrapped around. They tumbled to the ground, unable to budge, and Toph laughed evilly. "You're on guard duty first, Sugar Queen." Grabbing Aang's arm, she started dragging him away. "Come'on, Twinkletoes, you've got to be one heck of'a earthbender if you're going to protect yourself from His Sparkiness."